Damn it’s been painful watching these Reds lately. It’s about to the point that you pray for rain, except that if you’re in the tri-state area you probably already have a couple inches of water in your basement and any more water in your yard will mean you’ll have to stop playing catch with your kid and instead start playing water polo.

So, what the hell is wrong with this team? Here’s a little info about the team’s losses this season:

An average of 3.14 runs per game, featuring only three games where the Reds scored fewer than two runs. It ain’t the offense that’s the problem here, folks.

Not that we didn’t know there’d be problems with the pitching when a third of the rotation wound up on the DL. It just hurts when pitching seemed to be such a strength of this team. Alas, it’s a big difference between Johnny Cueto and Mike Leake, and a big difference between Homer Bailey and Sam LeCure.

But take heart, Reds fans: they’re coming back. Bailey is scheduled to start on Thursday, and Leake will take the mound on Sunday. No word yet on whether they’ll be playing baseball or Marco Polo.

How, after all these years, did I not realize that “Trey” was a reference to “three”? #Duh

Dr. Saturday, a BCS blog on Yahoo.com, talked a little about “The Kid’s Kid” last week, specifically regarding his (so far, largely unsuccessful) efforts to land at a prestigious football college:

The football scouts have been somewhat less impressed: Griffey’s only Division I offer to date is from Florida International, though a few heavier hitters seem to have shown some serious interest, and he hopes a transfer to a more high-profile program.

There’s a video with Trey that you might like to click over and check out.

No word yet on David Weathers’ son who so impressed the world as a surprisingly skilled 6-year old. He must be almost to middle school by now, so you’ll want to keep your eyes open for that one.

Remember a couple years ago when that video of the storm blowing through Busch Stadium was all over the place?

Now you can enjoy even more windy footage from St. Louis, the heir-apparent to the Windy City. This is surveillance footage from the airport when the storm that delayed the first game of the recent Red-Cards series blew through:

Yes, letting that game proceed on schedule was a good idea.

As much of a goofy, goody-two-shoes, Jim-Edmonds-lover as he is, George Grande has always been a favorite broadcaster of mine, so I was psyched to have gotten this message in my email inbox:

Grande will be calling play-by-play alongside analyst Chris Welsh for the Cincinnati Reds-Milwaukee Brewers series next Monday, April 25 through Wednesday, April 27th.

Monday’s game in Milwaukee begins at 8pm. Tune in to Reds Live pregame show at 7:30pm and visit www.foxsportsohio.com for additional coverage.

Hopefully my class will get out early on Monday so that I can get as much of my George Grande fix as possible, but if not, I’ll be spending some extra time with the Georginator 6000 XL.

A couple days ago, Cincinnati Reds starter Mike Leake was arrested for shop-lifting. Today, there was a report from Cincinnati’s WCPO Channel 9 that Leake had paid for the shirts.

The report is written oddly, like that of a middle-schooler trying to write a paper and sound impressive by using a thesaurus for every mundane word. For instance, the article starts by stating, “delicate negotiations will be undertaken shortly to hopefully remedy the Mike Leake imbroglio to everyone’s satisfaction.” Okay. I’m sure that couldn’t have been worded in an easier to read manner.

But getting past that, here’s the meat of the story.

A reliable source tells me that Leake did indeed pay for T-shirts some time prior to yesterday’s episode. And only in the process of clumsily trying to exchange them, did he run afoul of, if not the law, then certainly the dictates of common sense.

That Leake somehow thought that he could affect what is termed an “even exchange” without benefit of a store employee presiding over the transaction.

So this source is saying that Leake previously paid for the shirts and walked in the store later to exchange them without talking to a store employee. It sounds ridiculous, but given that this is a world where a diner can sue a restaurant after eating an artichoke, it’s certainly possible. But if true, what a dummy Leake is.